I Became The Rankers’ Number One Pick [EN]: Chapter 46

46.

People clicked their tongues, looking at Park Seo-ah and Yang Tae-woo with pity.

“How did they get caught here…”

“Too bad, they look like young people.”

“Still, they’re young and strong, so they won’t become food right away…”

They were actually having human-like conversations. Meanwhile, in one corner of the cage, some were collapsed and groaning.

“Water… water…”

Seo-ah took out a bottle of water from her inventory and approached the cage. When she handed it to the person inside, his eyes widened.

“Hukk, thank… thanks…”

At that moment, people suddenly swarmed, reaching their hands through the bars of the cage.

“Me too, me too, water!”

“Please give me some! My child hasn’t had water for days!”

“Here too, here too!”

“W-wait a minute…”

Someone tried to pull on Seo-ah’s sleeve. Yang Tae-woo quickly grabbed Seo-ah’s shoulder and pulled her back.

“What are you doing! Get a grip!”

“…Ah.”

Seo-ah seemed to snap out of it and retreated a little further. Then, she flinched when she saw a man approaching her.

“Those people are going to die soon anyway; it’s strange that you’re giving them precious water.”

“There’s plenty of water, so it doesn’t matter.”

Seo-ah glanced down at the man’s feet.

The man’s feet looked fine on the surface. But Seo-ah knew. With the kind of injury she saw earlier, Seo-ah’s recovery skill wouldn’t be enough to completely heal it.

But the man acted as if he didn’t feel any pain at all. Was his mental strength amazing? Or was he numb from feeling too much pain?

At that moment, Seo-ah heard a familiar sound from the passage she had come through. It was the sound of scorpions moving.

“Oh, let’s go inside this way for now.”

The man pushed Park Seo-ah and Yang Tae-woo into an empty cage. Then, he stood close to a corner himself. His terrified face was quite impressive.

Clatter, click-

[Infected Scorpion] Two of them and six infected humans were there. When the scorpion shrieked, the humans opened the cage and went inside. And they dragged out two people.

The man Seo-ah had given water to earlier, and a sickly old man.

When Seo-ah saw that, she tried to jump up, but Yang Tae-woo grabbed her shoulder and pressed her down.

Seo-ah bit her lip and squeezed her eyes shut. They were people who would surely die if they were dragged away.

Even though she knew that she, an E-class hunter, couldn’t do anything right now, guilt and helplessness weighed heavily on Seo-ah’s heart.

And in the meantime, the man in the corner had disappeared, following the scorpions.

“Sniff, sniff… How… did it come to this…”

Inside the cave where the scorpions had disappeared, only the groans and stifled sobs of the survivors echoed.

Yang Tae-woo also sighed deeply and stared at Seo-ah.

It was definitely unexpected. He thought that as an E-class hunter, she wouldn’t be able to do anything, but in a crisis situation, she was calmer and more daring than him.

But no matter how much Seo-ah did, it was still difficult to escape this place with just the two of them.

“…I wonder if this will work.”

Seo-ah kept muttering while looking at the air. She seemed to be looking at the status window or the hunter store. Yang Tae-woo nudged her slightly and whispered in the team chat.

– Hey, what are you going to do? If we stay trapped like this, won’t they come to rescue us soon?

– It’ll be hard to stay trapped like this. They’ll probably come to get us again soon.

– What? How do you know that?

– Just… a feeling. Did you see the host in the boss cave earlier? If it’s that full of parasites, it won’t last long.

“So they’re looking for a new host? And that’s one of us? Ah, damn it! Creepy.”

Yang Tae-woo shuddered and spat out a curse.

– Shh, first… how about this?

Seo-ah shared the screen of the hunter store she was looking at with Yang Tae-woo. Yang Tae-woo’s expression was bitter when he saw it.

“…Will this be enough?”

From then on, Seo-ah just spoke out loud. After all, the guys wouldn’t know what they were saying even if they heard it.

“Well, wouldn’t it still have some effect? This or that… it’s the same species.”

“It’s so expensive, why is it so expensive.”

“And this, and this…”

“Well, the idea isn’t bad.”

When Yang Tae-woo’s reaction was not clear, Seo-ah glanced at him sideways.

“Why? Is it not good?”

“No, that’s not it. I don’t have that much gold. I got cleaned out recently when I changed my rod [fishing rod].”

Yang Tae-woo stammered as if he was embarrassed to say that he, as an A-class hunter, had no money.

Seo-ah didn’t care at all and continued to speak.

“How much do you have? Won’t it work even if we combine it with my gold?”

The two sold all the items they had and managed to buy one item each that they were trying to buy.

“The problem is how to use this. Honestly, I agreed because there’s no other way, but it’s still too much. The probability of failure is high. Above all, my recovery amount…”

“You said you were confident in your recovery amount, if nothing else.”

“Of course. But the opponent is A-class.”

“We can’t kill it. We just need to escape. Looking for a chance…”

Splash, splash-

A sound of stepping on wet ground was heard.

The man who had disappeared earlier appeared, leading the infected humans. Two scorpions were also with them.

Kieeeek-

“The boss wants to see the woman first.”

“…Just me?”

“Yes, let’s go.”

Seo-ah slowly got up.

At that moment, she noticed the light of the tracker flickering slightly. Seo-ah turned around and slightly showed her wrist.

Then Yang Tae-woo looked at her and nodded slightly, then lightly touched her wrist. All of this happened in an instant so that the man couldn’t see it.

“…Then this way.”

Seo-ah came out of the cage, and as she and the man went ahead, the infected human closed the door of the cage.

And after a while, the inside of the cage where Yang Tae-woo should have been was empty.

“Why are you only calling me?”

“I don’t know either. I don’t even know what he’s thinking… I’m just doing what I’m told.”

As he said that, the man looked up and down at Seo-ah as if he was trying to gauge something. His eyes felt unpleasant, but Seo-ah didn’t show it and followed him, glancing back.

‘Is he coming okay?’

Before arriving at the boss cave, a pungent stench that seemed to pierce the nose was already emanating.

Crunch, crunch-

Seo-ah couldn’t bear to watch the boss cave’s monsters ‘eating’ and turned her face away.

From the hole pierced at the fingertip of the boss monster, a thin, thread-like hair tail-like thing popped out and was also joining the meal.

When Seo-ah appeared, the white eyeballs of the monster turned to Seo-ah.

“Krrung… Fe…male… My… cradle.”

Seo-ah listened to the monster’s words and calmly examined its appearance. Things that she hadn’t seen properly because she was so disgusted earlier came into view.

‘As expected, the host is a woman. And… a young woman.’

There must be a reason why it has to be a woman. That must be related to the ‘cradle’.

Every time the monster opened its mouth, thin, long things wriggled inside.

“You need to get a little closer.”

The man pushed Seo-ah forward. When Seo-ah tried to resist going, the scorpions behind her screamed and pushed her with their pincers.

Kiek, thud-!

Seo-ah’s body flew through the air and fell in front of the monster’s feet.

“Ugh.”

The impact of her body hitting the ground was considerable.

In fact, even this level of attack from the scorpion was fatal to Seo-ah, who was an E-class hunter.

“Ah, humans get hurt when that happens. Please be careful.”

The man’s voice from behind seemed to be in a good mood for some reason.

“Krrreung… My… cradle…”

The monster’s arm stretched out. To be exact, a thick tentacle stretched out and the shoulder and arm separated. The body of the woman who had already become the host of this parasite seemed to have only skin left, and not a drop of blood came out.

The stretched tentacle wrapped around Seo-ah’s waist and lifted her up. As her eye level became the same, she could see it more clearly.

‘It’s not just one.’

The parasites wriggling in her mouth were not one. One of them stretched out long and dangled in front of Seo-ah’s nose.

“O…pen… your… mouth…. Quickly.”

“…Ugh.”

No matter how much she tried to endure it, she couldn’t stand it because it was too disgusting. Seo-ah didn’t hesitate any longer.

– Now!

Seo-ah sent a team chat to Yang Tae-woo, who must be somewhere nearby, and took out the items she had bought from the inventory in both hands.

And at the same time, she sprayed them on the monster’s mouth and eyes.

Khaaaaaak!

The thing she sprayed in its mouth was ‘deworming medicine’, and the thing she sprayed in its eyes was a consumable item called ‘backfire’.

The power of the tentacle wrapped around her waist momentarily loosened, and Seo-ah landed on the ground and retreated.

At that time, Yang Tae-woo, who had come right next to her, came out of stealth. He immediately cast a recovery skill on the monster.

With the tremendous amount of recovery, the monster’s knees buckled and its body collapsed. This was the effect of the ‘backfire’ item. This item caused all skill effects to occur in reverse.

Usually, it is used to nullify attacks, but Seo-ah used it to change Yang Tae-woo’s recovery skill into an attack.

It certainly seemed to have inflicted quite a bit of damage, but it was not dead yet.

“Run, quickly!”

Yang Tae-woo grabbed Seo-ah’s wrist and started running. At that time, the man also ran along with them.

“Amazing! You gave the boss a hit!”

Seo-ah was momentarily startled when she saw the man. And Yang Tae-woo also grabbed Seo-ah’s wrist more tightly as he looked at the man.